Themes in Phenomenological Psychological Research

August 2012, Saybrook Residential Conference

Marc Applebaum, PhDAssociate Editor, Journal of Phenomenological PsychologyFounding Editor, PhenomenologyBlog

©2012 Marc Applebaum

Descriptive exercise

Have you had an experience of seeing an important person in your life as a real person in his or her own right, as if for the first time?

If yes, please describe what this was like, with as much detail as possible

This seminar’s purpose

To introduce you to the phenomenological traditionTo give you a sense of how researchers in phenomenological psychology have approached the study of intimacy, resilience, and empathyTo give you enough information to decide whether to begin learning the method by taking RES 3130 at Saybrook3130 is the hands-on introduction to conducting descriptive phenomenological psychological research

My background--

My expertise is in the descriptive phenomenological method pioneered by Amedeo Giorgi at Duquesne and SaybrookAnd its roots in the philosophy of Edmund Husserl and Maurice Merleau-PontyI am Associate Editor of the Journal of Phenomenological Psychology, and edit PhenomenologyBlog My interests include cultural and organizational psychology, and consciousness studies

A caveat--

This seminar aims to introduce students to the work of several contemporary phenomenological psychologists…My summary of and excerpts from their work are partial and reflect my own perspective and the limited time we haveI encourage you to read the publications of Halling, Wertz, and Englander directly: references are provided at the end of this presentation

Descriptive Phenomenological Psychology

• Is one of the most carefully articulated qualitative psychological research methods

• Envisions psychology as a human science, as distinguished from a natural science

“Science” and “Human Science”

Scientia is Latin for “knowledge;” the word does not imply a particular method or subject matter

Instead it refers to the outcome of inquiry: reliable knowledge for a community of knowers

The meanings of science have been debated for millennia--“science” is not a univocal term

The origins of natural science predate Galileo’s brilliant experiments in the 16th century. In the course of conceiving of human being as the object of scientific investigation, the human person came to be defined in large measure as a natural object.Therefore the human being came to be seen as spatially and temporally bounded and subject to material causality.

Emergence of Natural Science

We’re surrounded by evidence of the natural science’s accomplishments—• The computer showing this presentation • The transportation that brought us here today• The food, housing, and health care that sustain

us are in large measure due to natural science

Achievements of Natural Science

Nevertheless, since the 17th century there has been a debate within philosophy and the sciences regarding whether human being should be viewed as a natural object like chemical compounds, plants or animals…

Or whether consciousness makes human beings a unique sort of object for science—an object who is also a subject, requiring a “human science.”

Are human beings (only) natural objects?

The human science movement took particular shape the 19th century as an alternative to positivism, which had become the dominant philosophy of science.

Human science

Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911)

Human science argues that meanings, not just facts, are critical in understanding human phenomena. Dilthey was a founding figure in this movement.

For a human science approach, the fullness of lived experience must be preserved in order to understand human being

The “human” in human science

This is lost if we reduce human being to only its measurable and causal-mechanical dimensions

We’ll discuss examples of this later…

Phenomenological philosophy of science

Philosophers such as Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Gurwitch are part of the phenomenological tradition--It includes more than a century of critical thinking about science, scientific methods, psychology, and the meanings of technology in society

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938)

“The whole universe of science is built upon the world as directly experienced, and if we want to subject science itself to rigorous scrutiny…we must begin by reawakening the basic experience of the world of which science is the second-order expression.” (2005/1945, p. ix)

-Maurice Merleau-PontyPhenomenology of Perception

Science is based upon the lived-world

Origins of phenomenological psychology

Edmund Husserl (1859-1938) founded phenomenological philosophyPhilosophers such as Sartre, Merleau-Ponty, and Gurwitsch explored psychological implications of phenomenology, but no research method had been articulated by psychologistsIn the late 1960’s Amedeo Giorgi, trained as a quantitative psychologist, began to develop a qualitative research method based upon Husserl’s philosophical method

“When I articulated the idea that psychology should be a human science, it was because, for me, the discipline of psychology was essentially missing its target. It was not truly capturing psyche…I realized that it wasn’t a patch-up job that psychology required so much as radical reform.”

-Amedeo Giorgi (2000)

Re-envisioning psychology as a human science

Examples of phenomenological psychological questions--

What does it mean psychologically when time seems to “slow down” or “speed up”? How is connectedness or disconnectedness experienced between members of a team? What are the various meanings of feeling “distant” from a loved one? How does empathy, or lack of empathy, occur?

Saybrook’s unique role in the traditionFor more than a quarter of a century Saybrook has been a home for phenomenological psychology, thanks to the work of Amedeo Giorgi

The descriptive phenomenological method--

Is a depth approach that requires intensive work with interview transcriptsFor a dissertation 3-4 subjects are interviewed regarding their experience of a phenomenonThe researcher seeks to discover whether a shared psychological structure unites the subjects’ accounts of the phenomenon

You will see examples later…

Examples of phenomenological dissertations--

Pivotal moments in psychotherapyThe experience of living with hallucinatory psychosisThe experience of precognitive dreamsThe experience of the body in multiple personality disorderUnconscious reaction to culture change as it is expressed in dreams

Phenomenological courses

RES 3130: The Descriptive Phenomenological MethodHTP 3140: The Phenomenological Critique of Psychological Systems8100: Independent Study (theory or praxis) such as—

Edmund Husserl: Crisis of European SciencesMaurice Merleau-Ponty: The Phenomenology of Perception Conduct a study with 3-4 subjects

RES 1100: Phenomenological Research Practicum

The phenomenological path at Saybrook

1. Introduction to Phenomenological Psychological Research

2. Independent study using the method (both theory and praxis)

3. Research practicum using the method4. Candidacy essays5. Dissertation

Halling, Wertz, and Englander

Steen Halling, Seattle University

Fred Wertz, Fordham University

Magnus Englander, Malmö University

Adopting a phenomenological attitude

The researcher sets aside her previous experiences and theoretical knowledge in order to encounter the other’s experience freshly (bracketing)Neither affirming nor denying the factual content of the data (epoché) Seeking to explicate the lived-meanings in the data from a psychological perspective

Steen Halling: Intimacy, Transcendence, and Psychology (2008)

Halling: research question

“Describe as specifically as possible a time when you came to see someone of real significance in your life more as a real person in his or her own right.”

(2008, p. 16)

Interview and analysis

How we interviewTranscribing and dividing data into “meaning units”Transforming the data (explication)Seeking the least variant psychological structure, among the descriptions gathered

Seeing the other as a real person

As we analyze data, we “dwell” with itInsights arise unpredictably—it’s not a mechanical processTime, patience, and care are required

Halling (2008)

Halling—grasping the phenomenon

“This reaching out [to the other] does not come about as we make a deliberate effort to bring about a…transformation.” (2008, p. 24)

Why might this be important, psychologically?

Halling“The awakening of the self to encounter or embrace more of the being of the other person is indeed a movement of creativity. In being receptive and responsive, the self changes, and image of the other alters, and the relationship changes in ways that were unanticipated.” (2008, p. 32)

What does this imply about “seeing the other”?

Halling: psychological constituents

(1) Surprise and wonder, (2) participation in the perspective of the other, (3) recognition of separateness, (4) awakening of the self, and (5) a horizon of hopefulness.

(2008, p. 23)

How do these constituents relate to your own spontaneous descriptions of the phenomenon?

Halling’s second study: Forgiveness

Reductionism is an issue phenomenologists often confront--

“Overall psychologists discuss forgiveness in rather reductive terms. By ‘reductive,’ I mean that this process, which is subtle and profound, is frequently described in ways that are simplistic and one-dimensional.” (2008, p. 102)

Halling

Psychologists have called forgiveness “’a promising therapeutic tool,’” describing it as a willed action, while other psychologists “encourage clinicians to ‘consider the use of forgiveness’ as if it were a medication or technique.” (2008, pp. 102-103)

What’s problematic about framing forgiveness as a technique?

Excerpt from a phenomenological description

“The experience of forgiving the person who has injured oneself is a complex multidimensional process that moves from a tearing of one’s lived world through feelings of hurt, anger, revenge, confusion to an opening up to a larger experience of oneself and the world.”

(Halling, 2008, p. 106)

Descriptive exercise

Describe in writing a situation when something very unfortunate happened to you

Frederick Wertz: “A Phenomenological Psychological Approach to Trauma and Resilience”, in Five Ways of

Doing Qualitative Analysis (2011)

Wertz (2011): a case study

In this case the method was used with a single caseThe data was gathered in a slightly different way, due to the structure of the collaboration

Wertz: full research question

“Describe in writing a situation when something very unfortunate happened to you. Please begin your description prior to the unfortunate event. Share in detail what happened, what you felt and did, and what happened after, including how you responded and what came of this event in your life.”

(2011, p. 104)

Wertz: research attitude

“The overall attitude I adopted in this work was first to put aside my knowledge of scientific theories and research on trauma and resilience in order to focus on the concrete example in Teresa’s life….” (2011, p. 136)

What challenges can you imagine in adopting a phenomenological attitude?

Wertz: examples of psychological constituents• “Initially, trauma is passively suffered. It

happens to a person, was not intended, and therefore is experienced in cognitive shock and disbelief…in which a previously active agent becomes an acute sufferer.

• Trauma is lived bodily by way of numbness, paralysis, diminishment, contraction, shrinkage, or withdrawal in relation to the world.” (2011, p. 154)

Wertz: other examples• “The individual’s stance toward trauma and

strategies of living through and coping with trauma are…continuations of habitual ways in which he or she has coped with past adversity…”

• “Trauma is individualizing, isolating, lonely—the traumatized person is singled out and separated from others.” (2011, p. 154-155)

Magnus Englander “Empathy Training from a Phenomenological Perspective,” (submitted for publication)

Englander• Draws upon phenomenological philosophical

explorations of empathy in the work of Husserl, Stein, and others (see Zahavi, 2010)

• Questions the predominant psychological view of empathy as a kind of simulation

• Seeks to explore lived-empathy as an experience of opening to intersubjectivity

Englander (forthcoming)

Drawing on phenomenological philosophy, he argues: “Empathy is a distinct form of intentionality and is not to be confused or fused with closely related phenomena such as sympathy, caring…providing service, helping someone solve a problem, et cetera.”

Empathy training

• Englander’s training (forthcoming) is an experiential workshop

• Participants work in dyads and are introduced to the descriptive phenomenological perspective--

• As a way of learning to discriminate between their experiences of empathizing and, for example, problem-solving in relation to an other…

Conclusion: becoming a researcher

“Using Giorgi’s method involves judgment and imagination, and there is a sense in which one does not really appreciate the method until one has worked with it for a while, ideally with the guidance of an experienced phenomenological researcher. As Kuhn pointed out, you do not become a competent member of a scientific community just by reading texts and manuals.”

(Halling, 2008, p. 164)

Selected ReferencesEnglander, M. (forthcoming). Empathy training from a phenomenological

perspective. Journal of Phenomenological Psychology.Giorgi, A. (2009). The descriptive phenomenological method in psychology:

A modified Husserlian approach. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press.Giorgi, A. (2000). Psychology as a human science revisited. Journal of

Humanistic Psychology, 40 (3): 56-73.Halling, S. (2008) Intimacy, transcendence, and psychology: Closeness and

openness in everyday life. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.Merleau-Ponty, M. (2005). The phenomenology of perception. C. Smith

(Trans.). London: Routledge. (original work published in 1945)Wertz, F. (2011). A phenomenological psychological approach to trauma and

resilience. In Five ways of doing qualitative analysis, F. Wertz et al. (Eds.). (pp. 124-164). New York: The Guildford Press.

Zahavi, D. (2010). Empathy, embodiment, and interpersonal understanding: From Lipps to Shutz. Inquiry, 53(3): 285-306.

Photo credit: anatomy of the brain from Curious Expeditions